Desserts: The New Flavour of Penang

To Malaysian locals, Penang has been widely known as a food paradise. It is hard not to when in every 5 to 10-minute drive, you’ll tend to find yourself in the vicinity of either food courts, hawker stalls, tiny size cafes or restaurants. 

The variety of food choices here is insane. Generally, the food in Penang is predominantly of Chinese’s influence, but you can also get easy access to other cuisines such as Malay, Indian-Muslim, Thai, Indonesian and Western. The food in Penang is a small, melting pot of cultures.

The authenticity of Penang food goes back centuries-old, as far as the 1800s like Hameediyah restaurant. While some of the food establishments here have acquired your unwavering loyalty, the new Penang offers you so much more flavours now. The latest rage would be the desserts, which nothing short of amazing. Here is some desserts place that I would recommend to enhance your Penang experience further.

Bingsu 9 Korean Desserts Café

When the sultry tropical heat spikes, people would typically develop a craving for desserts. Then, you might want to try Bingsu 9 Korean Desserts Café. This café only sells Bingsu (Korean shaved ice) and a small number of scrumptious-looking waffles and cakes. My top picks for this café would be chocolate banana waffle and chocolate banana Bingsu. If you have a sweet tooth, Mango Bingsu would be a perfect choice for you. Top it up with a small slice of cheesecake, you’ll be skipping happily afterwards. This café is located at Maritime Piazza, Persiaran Karpal Singh, 11600 Jelutong, Penang,

Fruitmade

If you are looking for an authentically local dessert, try the homemade fresh fruit ice cream by Fruitmade. The combination of its unique flavours and soft creamy texture makes  Fruitmade the rage of the internet. The Fruitmade café is located in this really nice little spot at Lebuh Cannon, Georgetown, Penang. Fruitmade café gives you a bit of hipster vibe and plenty of shades for you to enjoy your ice cream. Their signature flavour is the dragon fruit and lemon ice cream. 

If you are not really an ice cream person, you can always try their freshly made smoothies and juices, which they have a variety of flavours as well like mango, pineapple and apple. 

Potterhead Malaysia

Sometimes, wouldn’t you wish for magic? Here in Potterhead Malaysia, you can live out your wizardry fantasies to your fullest. Potterhead Malaysia is a Harry Potter inspired café and if you are a fan, it should be in your must-visit list. Their milkshake butterbeer is highly recommended. For something to munch on, you can order their scrumptious sweet whoomphing waffle, which topped with a scoop of Butterbeer-flavoured ice cream. 

The best part of going to Potterhead Malaysia, you will be able to don Hogwarts robes, ties and scarves of your house of choice while enjoying your meal. So which one are you? Are you Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff? 

The Twelve Cups

The next best thing, is the oldest café establishments in town, The Twelve Cups. This café calls upon smoothie bowl lovers and I especially, love their Royal Chocolate Bowl. Topped with bananas, grains and curls, this bowl is perfect for someone who loves chocolate, yet also watchful of its calorie content. Health is indeed wealth!

This café has the most beautiful interior décor. It is also the most Instagram-able place in town! Before you come here, do yourself a favour. Pull out the best outfit from your wardrobe, because you might find yourself enjoy taking your pictures too much. 

Rollney Penang

If you are in search of good dessert and budget is not an issue, I would recommend Rollney Penang. This is because their desserts are insanely good and their prices definitely show you that. This dessert shop focuses exclusively on Kurtos Kalacs and soft serve. Kurtos Kalacs is a spit cake specific to Hungary and Hungarian-speaking regions in Romania. It is made from sweet, yeast dough (raised dough), form into a strip that is spun and then wrapped around a truncated cone-shaped baking spit, and then rolled in 3 flavours of your choice: Golden Glaze, Cinnamon Sugar and Coconut. For the ice cream, they change the flavours every two weeks. There are about 15 toppings that can be chosen from. As for me, I find Lotus Biscuit and Marshmallow is the best flavour. 

Halab Penang 

Halab, is now a relatively well-known Middle Eastern restaurant in Penang with a great selection of classic dishes like Chicken Mandi, Maklouba, Grilled Kebabs, Shawarma, Dolma and Hummus dip selection. While Halab Penang is scoring high on its main course selections, I believe its desserts deserve some credits too. 

My all-time-favourite would totally be banana crepe, banana on a stick and also, strawberry on a stick. The banana crepe is wrapped in a thin crepe and drenched with Nutella sauce that will arouse your appetite. It is not an exaggeration if I were to say, your dine-in experience at Halab Penang would not be complete without trying their mouth-watering desserts.